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Toyota Prius: The Silent Killer

Oh sure, they’re environmentally conscious and cost-efficient, but there’s a dark side to those zippy Toyota Priuses: They can be lethal to the blind.

Really. I’m not making this up. The Associated Press says so, so it must be true:

Because hybrids make virtually no noise at slower speeds when they run solely on electric power, blind people say they pose a hazard to those who rely on their ears to determine whether it’s safe to cross the street or walk through a parking lot.

“I’m used to being able to get sound cues from my environment and negotiate accordingly. I hadn’t imagined there was anything I really wouldn’t be able to hear,” said Deborah Kent Stein, chairwoman of the National Federation of the Blind’s Committee on Automotive and Pedestrian Safety. “We did a test, and I discovered, to my great dismay, that I couldn’t hear it.”

The tests — admittedly unscientific — involved people standing in parking lots or on sidewalks who were asked to signal when they heard several different hybrid models drive by.

“People were making comments like, ‘When are they going to start the test?’ And it would turn out that the vehicle had already done two or three laps around the parking lot,” Stein said.

Apparently some of the more rabidly green haven’t taken kindly to the blind folks’ complaining:

NFB President Marc Maurer said he received an e-mail from an environmentalist who suggested that the members of his group should be the first to drown when sea levels rise from global warming.

Now, now, no need for such testiness. Clearly there’s an easy resolution to this problem, one that protects the environment without imperiling the visually impaired, and I call on FF’s Prius owners — Mike and Mariel — to lead the way: Start leaning on your horn wherever and whenever you drive.

They really are that quiet. It’s amusing, but actually a problem for someone with a blind drive in which I cannot see if people are about to walk in front of my car. The loudness (and stinky exhaust) of my old Camry made it clear to people that there was a car coming, and they stayed away! Now I have to be extra vigilant. Sometimes I honk the horn sometimes just to be sure. But the good news is that it’s quiet only a super low speeds. Once you hit about 11 mph, it gas engine cranks on.

jonathan dobrer

I have the answer. Years ago, someone tried to market a silent vacuum cleaner. No one would buy it because they thought that without noise, it wasn’t doing anything–so they actually re-engineered it to be loud!

All the Prius needs is an external speaker and a sound chip going VAROOOOM VAROOOM!

Greg Nelson

And I remember that shortly after the introduction of personal computers, a silent keyboard was developed. However, they proved unpopular among newsroom reporters and some office workers who had gotten used to the sound of pounding keys.

njcommuter

Years ago I almost walked into the path of a Rolls Royce. It was on a ramp leading out of a basement parking garage, stopped just short of the sidewalk. Not hearing anything, I was about to walk in front of it when it pulled forward, up the ramp, and onto the street.

It would be wise to require that vehicles produce some sound when in motion or in a moving gear. A cadence that approximates the engine or exhaust noise of a well-made full-size car, used at speeds up to about fifteen miles per hour, should do it; above that speed, tire noise and wind noise are the major components. If designed carefully, it would probably draw between five and fifteen watts.

Speaking of which, are the Prius’s low-resistance tires especially quiet?

Talnik

You can’t hear them coming at low speeds. My wife almost got hit by one in a parking lot, and I nearly got hit on my bicycle. We’ve been conditioned for 4 generations to listen for cars, and now when one is suddenly behind or next to you without a sound, it’s eerie.